The risk of death for people hospitalized with Covid was cut in half by an experimental drug.
The drug seemed to work better for Covid patients than other drugs. Veru, the company in Miami that developed the drug, has applied to the FDA for an emergency authorization. Experts said that a new weapon could be added to the modest arsenal available to patients.
Dr. Ilan Schwartz is an infectious disease expert at the University of Alberta. There are a small number of treatments for patients with severe disease that improve mortality, but another treatment that can reduce deaths is very welcome.
The trial was small and only 134 patients received the drug. He said that he would welcome larger and independent confirmatory studies.
Microtubules are critical cables that carry material from one part of the cell to another.
Researchers at the University of Tennessee developed the drug to fight cancer because fast-growing tumors depend on the microtubules for rapid growth.
Two years ago, researchers tried out a new drug. The drug might be able to stop the replication of new viruses because they depend on the microtubule network.
They believed that the drug would help Covid patients. The immune response begins when cells release alarm signals into their surroundings To get the word out, the cells have to push the alarm molecule.
Researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center found that sabizabulin suppressed the alarm signals. The drug, which is taken as a pill, was being tested by Veru. It went to a late-stage trial in May.
Volunteers who were in the hospital were sought by the company. To be eligible for the trial, the patients had to be using a breathing apparatus. They had to be at high risk of dying of Covid because of their risk factors.
The patients were given other treatments that have been shown to be effective at saving lives of hospitalized Covid patients. Dexamethasone reduces the risk of death by one third.
The placebo group died at a much higher rate than those who received the new drug. The risk of death was cut in half.
The large number of deaths in the placebo group could be a sign that the study was too small to make a conclusive conclusion.
He said the 45 percent mortality rate in the control group jumped out at him.
In the baricitinib trial, 518 Covid patients received a placebo, while 515 were given the baricitinib. The placebo group did not die.
It is possible to keep Covid patients out of the hospital if they are given early on in their disease. Paxlovid can help reduce the risk of hospitalization for unvaccinated people with Covid risk factors.
There are hospitalized patients with moderate to severe Covid. They only block viruses and not rein in the immune system.
Doctors don't have as many drugs for hospitalized patients. Dexamethasone and baricitinib are both anti- inflammatory drugs.
When Veru announced its results in April, the company said it would stop the trial early because it would be unethical to give some patients placebos.
The benefits of the drug might have been more modest if the trial had gone longer.
He said that trials which are stopped early often underestimate the effect.
The drug molnupiravir appeared to reduce the risk of hospitalization from Covid by 50 percent. The figure fell to 30 percent in the analysis.
He predicted that sabizabulin would end up like that. The effect is 55 percent.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
